Benet grad returns home fronting Gold Motel at DuPage Co. Fair

After having enjoyed the Southern California sun for a past year, Greta Morgan will be returning home to charm the locals with her upbeat tunes.

She grew up in Oak Brook, though she didn't stay long. After being discovered by Fall Out Boy guitarist Pete Wentz, she decided to graduate early from Benet Academy in Lisle to prepare for her tour with The Hush Sound.

Morgan since has started a solo project and created the band Gold Motel with her favorite artists and friends. She plays with her band at 9:30 p.m. today at the DuPage County Fair as part of an evening lineup of bands with local ties.

Though this isn't her first fair, she is excited to tour again and show off her new sound. Recently, Morgan shared her thoughts with The Daily Herald on what it's like coming back to the 'burbs, collaborating with her band mates and seeing her dreams come true.

Q. How does it feel to be playing on your home turf again?A. It's fun! I played in the DuPage County Fair in 2007 with The Hush Sound and it was a really, really fun night. It's nice to be able to play a hometown show and have a lot of familiar faces coming out.Q. Did you go to the fair when you were younger?A. I did. I went actually almost every year, although I didn't really see the concerts at it. I just went on the rides.Q. Now, I have to ask, where did the name Gold Motel come from?A. The name Gold Motel was actually pulled out of a hat. Originally, I started this as kind of a solo project with friends in a studio doing preproduction work. We all said, "What are we going to name this? Should we go by my name or should it be a band name?" We thought, "Well, let's pull names out of a hat and see if we get something cool." Gold Motel was the first thing that didn't involve potty humor.Since that time, it's become more of a collaborative band, so I'm glad its under a band name.Q. The band's album "Summer House" was released June 1. How have people reacted to your music?A. It's been pretty much all positive. A lot of people have been saying this is a soundtrack to their summer, and they're happy to see I'm doing a new project. There's always an occasional listener who says, "Oh, I don't even want to hear this band. I just want The Hush Sound to get back together." Obviously, that's disappointing. But, I understand that as a listener when you're very loyal to a band, you hate changes. But, more so than that, people have been saying to me that they weren't necessarily fans of The Hush Sound, and they heard Gold Motel and really like it.Q. Why did you change up your musical style between The Hush Sound and Gold Motel?A. I was living in California all last year when I was writing these songs, so I was studying a lot of California pop music like The Beach Boys. As a band, we're just striving to write the perfect pop song. People don't realize how much intellect goes into it. Writing a song that people love listening to and makes them want to dance and makes them happy - that kind of thing is one of my goals. I feel like I could lock myself in a house for a year to try to write the perfect pop song, and I'd wind up with a hundred different options. It's a really interesting task.Q. What's it like collaborating with your band mates, who also have quite a bit of experience?A. It's so much fun. Everyone who is Gold Motel is somebody I've wanted to play music with for the last five or six years. Eric, our guitar player who wrote "Safe in LA," I've known him since I was about 12 or 13. I've gone to see his bands play in churches, in basements, and dance halls. I loved his music and his guitar playing and his style since we were teenagers, so I've always had the thought in the back of my mind that we would play together. And same thing with Dan, Matt and Adam, those three members of our band are also in the band This Is Me Smiling, who have been on hiatus on recording. I always kind of dreamed to one day play with those guys. So everyone in my band, to me, is like the perfect Chicago dream team. I get to play with people in my favorite bands, who I'm already good friends with. It's just been really easy and spontaneous and fun.Q. You have been on tour before with The Hush Sound. What's it like this time around?A. It's different. The Hush Sound had a really rigorous touring schedule, it was planned - practically on Jan. 1 of the year I knew what our entire year would look like. In Gold Motel, I decided that I wanted to do as much as I could on my own before we brought a whole team in. I started booking our shows, we recorded our album, we mixed ourselves. We did everything ourselves, and then the right people started coming to us. By booking these tours on our own and by playing for a lot of people, we now have a fantastic manager, fantastic booking agent, (and) a lot of labels are interested. That's different from The Hush Sound because with The Hush Sound a lot of that stuff was, not to say handed to us, but there were many lucky opportunities. And with Gold Motel, I am putting in a lot of the elbow grease on my own and we're really building it up together. It's been a really gratifying and empowering experience to watch the band grow and to see people respond and to do it in a natural, organic way.Q. Where do you see yourself in a couple of years? A. I would say in a year from now, I'd hope that Gold Motel will have done some amazing tours - being able to see the world playing music. I hope that a year from now, we'll have another album finished and released or ready to go. I just hope that we are still having fun and getting along and meeting a lot of other interesting bands.To find out more about the band, visit Goldmotel.com or its Twitter account @GoldMotel.False20001333Greta Morgan and Gold Motel.Courtesy of Gold MotelFalse <p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p><p class="News"><b>What:</b> Gold Motel concert</p><p class="News"><b>When:</b> 9:30 p.m. today</p><p class="News"><b>Where:</b> DuPage County Fair, 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton</p><p class="News"><b>Tickets:</b> $10, plus fair admission of $10 for adults or $3 for ages 3 to 12</p><p class="News"><b>Info:</b> <a href="http://dupagecountyfair.org" target="new">dupagecountyfair.org</a></p>